Obama hunts for support for his war

Obama wins key backing on Syria

President Barack Obama Tuesday won the backing of key Republican leaders for military strikes on Syria, as his top aides urged skeptical U.S. lawmakers to punish Damascus over chemical weapons attacks.

The Daily Star,

4 September, 2013

Secretary of State John Kerry, testifying before a Senate committee, warned against “armchair isolationism” after a chemical weapons attack last month in a Damascus suburb, which the U.S. says killed more than 1,400 people.

The dramatic developments in Washington came as the U.N. refugee agency released grim new statistics revealing more than 2 million people had now fled the violence in the war-torn country.

Obama said he hoped for “prompt” votes next week on authorizing force against Syria as he met congressional leaders at the White House, and said he was sure he would secure the necessary support.

The Republican speaker of the House, John Boehner – who has fought tooth and nail with Obama over domestic policy – emerged an hour later offering a firm endorsement of his rival’s strategy.

“I am going to support the president’s call for action,” Boehner said.

“This is something that the United States as a country needs to do,” he added, calling on Republican colleagues to follow his example.

Another key Republican, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor – popular with the party’s conservative rank and file – also backed Obama.

“Assad’s Syria, a state sponsor of terrorism, is the epitome of a rogue state, and it has long posed a direct threat to American interests and to our partners,” Cantor said.

As the White House stepped up its blitz to win over skeptical lawmakers, Kerry told a key Senate panel that “we must stand up and act” after the chemical weapons attack.

“This is not the time for armchair isolationism. This is not the time to be spectators to a slaughter. Neither our country nor our conscience can afford the cost of silence,” he said before the Senate Foreign Relations committee.

But in a sign of deep public misgivings, he was met with protests as he entered the packed room when a man with a pink shirt yelled, “Say no to war in Syria” adding: “We cannot afford to have another war, we need health care.”

Obama is not asking the United States to go to war but to authorize him to “degrade and deter” Syria’s capability to use chemical weapons, Kerry said Tuesday.

“President Obama is not asking America to go to war,” Kerry told the Committee. “He is asking for authorization to degrade and deter [Syrian President] Bashar Assad’s capacity to use chemical weapons.”

Kerry said he did not want the resolution on the use of force in Syria before the U.S. Congress to be cast in a way that would remove the option of putting U.S. “boots on the ground” with respect to Syria’s civil war.

“I don’t want to take off the table an option that might or might not be available to the president of the United States to secure our country,” he said when pressed on his earlier reluctance to see Congress explicitly prohibit this.

But Kerry also stressed that “the president has no intention” of putting American troops on the ground to be involved in fighting Syria’s civil war.

“Whatever prohibition clarifies it to Congress or the American people, there will not be American boots on the ground with respect to the civil war,” Kerry said.

Two polls released Tuesday showed strong opposition to a U.S. military intervention in the crisis. Some 48 percent of Americans told a Pew Research Center survey that they opposed “conducting military airstrikes” with only 29 percent in favor.

A poll by the Washington Post-ABC found a similar margin of nearly six in 10 Americans opposed to missile strikes.

But the Democratic chairman of the Senate committee, Robert Menendez, said, “There are risks to action but the consequences of inaction are greater and graver still.”

But the Republican-controlled House, which will hear from top administration officials Wednesday, is seen as the tougher sell for Obama.

Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi said she wanted more information about the U.S. intelligence on the Aug. 21 attack, but she appeared to be leaning toward a yes vote.

“President Obama did not draw the red line. Humanity drew it decades ago,” Pelosi said.

Obama said the attack, which Washington says involved the use of sarin, posed a serious national security threat to the United States and its allies.“As a consequence, Assad and Syria need to be held accountable,” he said, while assuring Americans he would not use ground troops.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel insisted before the Senate panel that “we have made clear that we are not seeking to resolve the underlying conflict in Syria through direct military force.”

But Assad warned in an interview with Western media released Monday that strikes of any kind could set off a wider Middle East conflict.

“Everyone will lose control of the situation once the powder keg explodes. Chaos and extremism will spread. There is a risk of regional war,” Assad told French newspaper Le Figaro.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon also warned that a Western military strike could make things worse.

“We must consider the impact of any punitive measure on efforts to prevent further bloodshed,” Ban said.

The U.N. refugee agency Tuesday revealed that some 2 million Syrians had now fled, in a tide of humanity which is straining resources in neighboring countries. Millions more have been displaced inside Syria.

Antonio Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, described the figures as a “disgraceful humanitarian calamity with suffering and displacement unparalleled in recent history.”

Amid the mounting tension, Israel and the United States launched a missile over the Mediterranean as part of a joint exercise.

However, the Pentagon said the test was not linked to any possible U.S. military action against Syria.

France, which backs Obama in his determination to launch a military intervention, Tuesday called on Europe to unite in its response to the crisis.

“When a chemical massacre takes place, when the world is informed of it, when the evidence is delivered, when the guilty parties are known, then there must be an answer,” French President Francois Hollande said.

Hollande said the U.S. vote “will have consequences on the coalition that we will have to create.” He did not specify whether that meant a military coalition.

“A large coalition must therefore be created on the international scale, with the United States – which will soon take its decision – [and] with Europe ... and Arab countries,” Hollande said.

If Congress votes no, France “will take up its responsibilities by supporting the democratic opposition [in Syria] in such a way that a response is provided,” The French leader added.

The French parliament will debate the Syria issue Wednesday, but no vote is scheduled. France’s constitution doesn’t require such a vote for military intervention unless its lasts longer than four months, though some French lawmakers have urged Hollande to call one anyway.

France has emerged as the main U.S. ally in the Syria crisis after the British Parliament last week rejected involvement in any military action.